India's Parliament debates a bill that would force the increase of women's representation in Parliament. Photo credit: Matthieu Aubry

A bill that would require a 33 percent representation of women in India’s national and state parliaments is currently in the hands of parliament’s upper house in New Delhi – causing what local media is describing as an “uproar” and opportunities for some entertaining political theatre: At one point, an opposition politician grabbed a copy of the Women’s Reservation Bill from the hands of Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, tore it into shreds, and threw the pieces over the dejected-looking head of proceedings.

Despite the furore, commentators say a preliminary count of supporters show majorities in both houses, though repeated disruptions have forced voting to be postponed till tomorrow. Although the ruling Congress party is reaching across the party divide, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lower house opposition leader Sushma Swaraj one of the bill’s major defenders, the proposed legislation has stirred up some posturing to take credit for it. Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi has tried to claim credit for the bill for her late husband, Rajiv Gadhi, The Economic Times reported, while at the same time, the BJP has “positioned itself as the original, and persistent, votary of the move to empower women.”

Versions of quotas exist worldwide: In Scandinavia, an initiative is asking that political parties submit electoral lists with every second candidate being a woman. A similar bill to the one currently being debated India was introduced in Iraq, where 25 percent of parliamentarians must be women according to a recently added constitutional requirement.

Neither is the idea novel within India, where the 33 percent threshold was introduced to village and municipal councils in 1986. Patricia Mukhim observed in The Statesman, “Although this is a small step to the larger more complicated world of higher politics which men tend to believe is their niche and theirs alone, a beginning has been made and those village women today know what governance is all about.”

Supporters of the bill point to the fact that women’s representation in India’s lower house passed only 10 percent for the first time in last year’s parliamentary elections.

On the other side of the divide, however, critics lambast the idea that women introduced to politics through a quota have real power. In The Pioneer newspaper, Sidharth Mishra wrote of meeting a local councilor’s husband, who effectively ran the show; Mishra asked whether the bill will truly empower women, or would “[we] be left patting our backs…. for having created a new genre of political creature called Sansadpati (MP’s husband)?”

Commentator Coomi Kapoor made a similar point in The Indian Express: “While women’s groups believe that the reservations bill will be a magical key which will open the door for genuine female emancipation, skeptics – including myself – question whether the well-intentioned legislation is the best way available to go about bringing parity between the sexes.”

Kapoor also addressed a key battleground issue for opponents of the bill, noting, “The Congress, in particular, has a preponderance of women MPs from elite backgrounds.” That the bill omits quotas within the proposed quota for the non-elite is the sticking point for many politicians who remain weary of a caste, rather than a glass, ceiling.

“The argument is not that privileged women should not be allowed to stand for election – but should they be given a leg up at the expense of men, who might have struggled much harder to make it?” wrote Kapoor.

Notably, the bill was first proposed 14 years ago, but has been re-introduced symbolically on the centenary of International Women’s Day.